Storage-battery system



Fb.13,1923. y 1,445,025.

S. E. MCFARLAND.

STORAGE BATTERY SYSTEM.

FILED Nov15, 1919 Patented Feb. 13, 1923.

UNITED STATES SAMUEL E. MCFARLAND, OF LOS ANGELES` CALIFORNIA,

STORAGE-BATTERY SYSTEM.

Application filed November 5, 1919.

T 0 @ZZ whom t may concern.'

Be it known that I, SAMUEL E. Mclin.. LAND-r a citizen of the UnitedStates, residing at Los ngeles, in the county ot Los Angeles. State ot'California, have invented new and useful Innn'ovcnients in rltoran'f"ABattery Systems, of which the following; a specification.

This invention relates to systems ot' opertion for storage batteries;`and relates more particularly to systems wherein it is desired tooperate a storage battery upon a charging line and to use differentportions of the storage battery simultaneously so as to have availablecurrents of different voltages.

In such systems as these it has heretoforer been found very difficult tomaintain the battery properly charged in all ot' its cells; certaincells being more used than others, .those most used have usually rundown in a comparatively short time. It. is an object ot the invention toprovide a system in which these difficulties are overcome. .And I dothis by providing a system in which the different parts of the batterymay be charged in proportion to the amount of use to which thoserespective parts are put.

The invention will be best understood from the following detaileddescription. of a simple form of system embody-*ing the invention,reference for this purpose being had to the accompanying drawings, inwhich- Fig. 1 is a diagram illustrating the general arrangement andelectrical connections of the system; and Fig. 2 is an elevation showinga suitable form of resistance element which may be used in the system.

In the drawings I have illustrated dia-A grammatically at B a storagebattery which, in this case, is a battery of six cells capable ofdelivering about twelve volts. The nega-A tive feed wire 10 is connectedby branch 11 to the proper side of the battery while the positive feedwire 12 is connected, through a. resistance element 13. and wire 12?land by branch wire 14:, to the other side of the hat tery. The batteryas a whole floats between the two circuit wires 1() and 12a. Between thedelivery ends of these two wires 10 and 12a there is of course a voltageof say twelve volts, the voltage of the battery. But be tween theincoming wires 10 and 12 the voltage may be much higher. Now it is oftendesirable to lead olf from an intermediate serial NQ. 335,924.

pointor points on the battery intermediate lead wires as indicated at l5and 1G. These lead wires may lie of any suitable uumlr/sr and may be ledoii :it any desired points. troni the battery. so as to obtain betweennire l() and these other lead wires the desired voltage or voltages. Forinstance, in the4 present case these wires and 16 are shown leading oii'at points to `give respectively four volts and eight volts between themand the lead wire 10.

I may provide the resistance elements in the form shown in Fig. 2.Conveniently, the resistance may be supplied in a plurality ot elements13. 13, and 13b which may be made by winding the resistance wire asshown at 20 onto a cylinder 20, the cylinder` being held between headsF21 aud 22 which are held together by rods Q3; and these rods 2? mayvtorni a convenient supporting' ine-ans for adjustable contacts Q4 fromwhich wires Q5 and 1Q may lead off. In the particular .installation hereshown I lead off one wire from a suitable point on each ol.Z resistanceelements 13 and 13b. these wires 25 connecting into the wires 'l5 and 16and thus connecting into the battery at the points where the wires 15and 16 tap the battery. The resistance elements 13, 13 and 13b are inparallel with each other, ach connected to 'feed wire 12` I t isofcourse well known that while the battery is used in the manner hereindicated (that is, current being taken off two or more of Wires 15, 16and 1Q) the battery section between wire 15 and wire 10 is most used,the battery section between wire 16 and wire 15 is somewhat less uned,and the batterv sec tion between the point ot tapping ot wire ttl andthe other end olt the battery is the least used. Now, my placing theresisten -2 contacts 24 in proper relative positions upon theresistance, I ain enabled very easily to adjust the relative as wellactual amount of.' current fed. to each section of the battery so as tokeep each section fully charged, and charged uniformly with the othersections, regardless ot bow much the battery as a whole, may be used andregardless ot how much more one part of the battery may he used thananother.

Having described a preferred form of my invention, I claim:

1. In a storage battery system in which ther battery is connectedbetween two main lead charging and discharging 'Wires and in whichanother lead discharging Wire leeds from the hatte-ry at an intermediatepoint, e resistance connected into one of the main lead Wires to controlthe charging of the huttery :is a Whole, and a charging wire lee-dingfrom the lead Wire through resistance ,to the said internrediate pointof the battery.

2. In a. storage battery system n which the battery is connected betweentwo main lead charging" and discharging Wires and in which mother leaddischarging wire leads from the buttery at an intermediate point, :tresistance in one oit the mehr lead wires to control the charging of thebatter-y es a, Whole` and a. charging' wire leading: from the leed Wirethrough adjustable resistance to the said intermediate point of thebattery.

3. In zt storage battery system in which the battery is connectedbetween tWo main lead charging and discharging vWires and in whichanother leerd, discharging Wire leads from the battery `at imintermediate point,

en adjustable resistance in one of the main leed wiresto control thecharging of the hettery as af Whole, and 2t charging Wire leading` fromthe leazd wire through adjustable resistance to the said intermediatepoint of the battery.

` In Witness that I claim the foregoingv ,l h eve heren-nto subscribedmy 11eme this 28th dey of Oetoloer7 1919.

SAMUEL E. MGFARLAND.

lVtness i VIRGINIA BERrNGER.

